Cons: Even though it’s nice to eat a few snacks rather than go without any food for 20-plus hours, the guidelines for what you need to eat (and when) can be hard to follow long-term. The strict schedule and meal plan may also interfere with social gatherings. Additionally, eating one main meal at night — while following strict guidelines of what to eat, and in what order — can be tough. It’s especially hard for those who prefer not to eat large meals late in the day.
While it’s not technically fasting, some doctors have reported intermittent fasting benefits by allowing such easy-to-digest food as whole fruit during the fasting window. Modifications like these can still give your digestive and metabolic system a needed rest. For example, “Fit for Life” was a popular weight loss book that suggested eating only fruit after supper and before lunch.
It requires less time (and potentially less money). Rather than having to prepare or purchase three to six meals a day, you only need to prepare two meals. Instead of stopping what you’re doing six times a day to eat, you simply only have to stop to eat twice. Rather than having to do the dishes six times, you only have to do them twice. Rather than having to purchase six meals a day, you only need to purchase two.
Yes — you read that correctly — 24 hours of intermittent fasting without any resistance training and these subjects were able to preserve more muscle mass than the subjects that ate fewer calories every day without fasting at all. This finding contradicts our common sense, but when we dig deeper into autophagy we can find the mechanism behind this result.
So, if your goal is ketosis, intermittent fasting can help you get into ketosis even faster. Simultaneously, the keto diet makes intermittent fasting more doable because your body is already adapted to fasting with ketones. In addition, most people naturally eat less frequently on keto because of the high satiety level, so you’re likely already used to bigger windows without food.
I would like to know what led you to the conclusion to recommend eating in the morning and fasting in the evening instead of the other way around. You do not link any studies here that show TRF in the morning is better than TRF in the evening. You do state “Nighttime eating is well associated with a higher risk of obesity, as well as diabetes.” but I would hazard a guess that alot people that snack into the evening have many other factors at play that could effect their risk of obesity and diabetes and are possibly not fasting at all. I have been doing TRF from 12-8pm every day for almost a year and have seen vast improvements in my health, not least of which is a loss of 70 lbs, so it seems odd to read items 3 and 4 on your 4 ways to use this information for better health. If you have evidence that supports the idea that TRF in the evening is bad then I would like to see it and perhaps change my dieting habbits.
IF as a weight loss approach has been around in various forms for ages, but was highly popularized in 2012 by BBC broadcast journalist Dr. Michael Mosley’s TV documentary Eat Fast, Live Longer and book The Fast Diet, followed by journalist Kate Harrison’s book The 5:2 Diet based on her own experience, and subsequently by Dr. Jason Fung’s 2016 bestseller The Obesity Code. IF generated a steady positive buzz as anecdotes of its effectiveness proliferated.
Your body contains proteins and other structures that constantly become dysfunctional or die. This isn't a bad thing; it's a necessary process for optimal health. However, if these dead tissues aren't cleared out from the body, they can cause cell death, contribute to poor cell and organ function and even become cancerous. Enter a process called autophagy.
You are probably wondering how there could possibly be a benefit to eating less frequently that goes beyond what you are already getting with a ketogenic diet. Restricting carbs and eating enough fat and protein does come with a plethora of health benefits, but when you add intermittent fasting to your lifestyle you can increase energy and reverse aging by harnessing the power of a nobel prize winning process.
Diet soda doesn't contain any sugar, calories or carbohydrates, so it may seem like it's OK for fasting, but it's not that simple. Diet soda and other diet drinks are filled with artificial sweeteners, which can drastically increase sugar cravings, making fasting more challenging. Artificial sweeteners can also increase insulin resistance, which makes it harder to lose weight and increase your risk of developing diabetes.
I started IT about 6 weeks ago. I eat between 12 noon and 8 pm. This works best for me and I have found easily sustainable. The results so far have blown my mind. I have an autoimmune disease and struggled with bloating, multiple food intolerance, gut pain, frequent urination, sugar cravings. All of these symptoms are gone. My hunger is controlled and I can enjoy lovely family dinners again. I think ideally eating earlier in the day would be better, but due to my schedule this works better for me and I am happy with the results.

Make sure you still eat enough. Intermittent fasting does help you naturally eat less during the day, but be sure you’re still eating nutritious ketogenic foods to avoid any deficiencies or metabolic issues. Use a website or app to calculate ideal caloric intake and your ketogenic macros for each day, then track them to make sure you’re getting sufficient nutrition.

Well, most notably, it’s a great way to get lean without going on a crazy diet or cutting your calories down to nothing. In fact, most of the time you'll try to keep your calories the same when you start intermittent fasting. (Most people eat bigger meals during a shorter time frame.) Additionally, intermittent fasting is a good way to keep muscle mass on while getting lean.
While the idea of fasting can be overwhelming, especially if you haven’t done it before, intermittent fasting can actually be a lot easier than many other types of eating plans. Since you are fasting for time restricted chunks of the day, you’ll be eating less food, which eliminates a lot of the stress around having to meal prep. During the periods of time in which you're eating, you’ll still want to focus mainly on healthy fats, clean protein, and carbohydrates from whole food sources—but this isn’t an excuse to hit the drive-thru and load up on sugar the rest of the time! Here are some of the effects of intermittent fasting:
That window can be shrunk or expanded depending on your needs and preferences but typically, it’s somewhere between 4-7 hours of feeding during the day. Intermittent fasting is a great practice for weight loss, appetite control, digestion, and health on its own. When it’s combined with the keto diet and its benefits, the results can be even better.
To start, recognize that the bulk of your weight-loss is going to come from fasting, not from working out. Exercise will have other benefits, of course, like building and preserving muscle tissue, improving performance, and increasing endurance, but it won’t be where you’re really taking off the pounds. With this in mind, if your priority is to lose weight, you’ll need to be prioritizing meal planning over working out. As you start intermittent fasting, you may need to pull back from regular strenuous exercise, at least until you feel like your body is used to your new schedule.
What and when you eat during the feeding window also depends on when you work out. On days you exercise, carbs are more important than fat. On rest days, fat intake should be higher. Protein consumption should be fairly high every day, though it will vary based on goals, gender, age, body fat and activity levels. Regardless of your specific program, whole, unprocessed foods should make up the majority of your calorie intake. However, when there isn’t time for a meal, a protein shake or meal replacement bar is acceptable (in moderation).

Make sure you still eat enough. Intermittent fasting does help you naturally eat less during the day, but be sure you’re still eating nutritious ketogenic foods to avoid any deficiencies or metabolic issues. Use a website or app to calculate ideal caloric intake and your ketogenic macros for each day, then track them to make sure you’re getting sufficient nutrition.

Of course, fasting — regardless of the method — isn’t for everyone. If you have any medical conditions or special dietary requirements, it’s smart to consult a doctor before giving intermittent fasting a shot. Anyone who tries it should also plan to be highly self-aware while fasting. If it’s not agreeing with you, or if you need to eat a little something to hold you over, that’s just fine. It takes our bodies time to adjust, and some require more than others. Keep in mind that hormones can make it harder for women to follow a fasting plan than for men. “Be cautious at first, and start slowly [with a shorter fast],” Shanks recommends. If it doesn’t make you feel better, try something different, or accept the fact that maybe fasting isn’t for you.
Since all of your hormones are so deeply interconnected, when one hormone is thrown off balance, the rest are also negatively impacted. It’s like a domino effect. As the “messengers” that regulate nearly every function in your body — from energy production to digestion, metabolism, and blood pressure — you don’t want to disrupt their natural rhythm.
Of course, fasting — regardless of the method — isn’t for everyone. If you have any medical conditions or special dietary requirements, it’s smart to consult a doctor before giving intermittent fasting a shot. Anyone who tries it should also plan to be highly self-aware while fasting. If it’s not agreeing with you, or if you need to eat a little something to hold you over, that’s just fine. It takes our bodies time to adjust, and some require more than others. Keep in mind that hormones can make it harder for women to follow a fasting plan than for men. “Be cautious at first, and start slowly [with a shorter fast],” Shanks recommends. If it doesn’t make you feel better, try something different, or accept the fact that maybe fasting isn’t for you.
In practice, however, I would be concerned with eating enough. Based on my experience, teaching yourself to consistently eat more is one of the harder parts of intermittent fasting. You might be able to feast for a meal, but learning to do so every day of the week takes a little bit of planning, a lot of cooking, and consistent eating. The end result is that most people who try intermittent fasting end up losing some weight because the size of their meals remains similar even though a few meals are being cut out each week.
There’s a ton of incredibly promising intermittent fasting (IF) research done on fat rats. They lose weight, their blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugars improve… but they’re rats. Studies in humans, almost across the board, have shown that IF is safe and incredibly effective, but really no more effective than any other diet. In addition, many people find it difficult to fast.